i have noticed that the unstable fps issue started (atleast for me) right after the steam version of empires it was running without any problems before that (actually i have the same cpu as the OP AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition.)
I get low fps when steam decides to take +40% cpu usage while im ingame. That continues for a few minutes or so untill it gets stable again
your CPUs are alot better than mine (Athlon 64 X2 6000+) and i still can play empires on max settings (w/ AA turned off) in 1280x1024 resolutuion. fps barely drop below 25 fps. so OPs hardware is definitely good enough for empires.
I'd have to second Neoony's comment, as I've encountered the same problem with the steam version. All the previous versions worked like a charm. For me, the tough part to handle seems to be anything urban. The asphalt, walls, etc. (NF raxes seem pretty hard to process, too..). District and SoF are unplayable, for example my FPS drops down to 10 inside buildings on District. I didn't have any of these problems with the non-steam 2.31. Other thing that's occured since the Steam release is that coast, midbridge and glycencity tend to crash the game almost instantaneously (though FPS-wise they have remained on a decent level). Updating gfx drivers didn't help. What's changed since the non-steam version? Hardware: i5 Q9450 4gb DDR3 nV 7900GTX 512 --- I have decreased the game resolution from 1600->13**, and put practically all other options to 'low'. On average, the pre-steam 2.31 performed perhaps 10 to 20 fps better with all settings on 'high'.
Sounds like parallax mapping is killing your FPS, do "find parallax" in your console and turn off any convars that may activate it
not only does parallax mapping look shite from up close in emp, it also add close to no visual improvement in such a fast paced game, aka you barely notice it anyway ...
is that reliable now? wasnt there some issue with it crashing the game? also shouldnt that be something like -1 to 2 settings wise for mat_queue_mode? or was that a completely different cvar i was thinking about?
okay, got first crash on money now after 10 minutes of constant 70+ fps EDIT: yeah it crashed me when playing as commander and when in a vehicle driving around the map does that command work in other games? tf2?
I removed "hints" by haji because they were misleading. mat_queue_mode isn't supported by the engine in Source 2007 nor it is supported by our vehicle code. You'll crash sooner or later but we're sure you will. -heapsize is a command you never have to use. Same with -threads.
I just tried "mat_queue_mode 2" and it gave me a 30% frame rate boost. But I could also saw how it rendered materials that missed textures at that time (drawing checkerboards) and eventually it crashed. I started playing Empires when it would run on a single core Athlon XP and an ATi X850 XT. Now I'm on a 2 Ghz Core 2 Duo notebook with a GeForce 8600M GT and 4 GB RAM, but things in the engine changed so that it is no longer playable even though the hardware is better. There are quite a few guides to 'optimize' your frame rates, but they mostly reduce gfx card and memory load and I am quite certain that the cpu is the bottle neck. So I guess I'll have to wait for Valve to fix their engine before I can play on that setup again. And just out of curiosity: What is causing the fps drop, MOOtant? Can you replicate it at all? It is obvious that it depends on the angle you are looking and loosely on how much is going on, but with so many 'soft occluders' like large buildings it is hard to tell from just playing online how many particle effects or animations are processed in areas of the map obstructed by trees, tanks or buildings. That said there may be other cvars besides mat_queue_mode that have a big impact on slower-than-average cpus.
I find it odd that 'mat_parallaxmap' doesn't directly determine whether parallax mapping is on or off, but rather sometimes (possibly depending on 'mat_parallax') changes the state of parallax regardless of its setting. At least, I couldn't get it to work predictably in about the two minutes I fiddled with it.
does Ambient Occlusion settings in graphic drivers do anything in Empires? performance or looks wise?
